BREWER – Some of the details about four proposed natural gas compression stations will be unveiled during a pair of open houses next week in Brewer and Searsmont.

In September, a natural gas consortium spokesman confirmed plans for a string of new compression stations.

According to a notice posted on Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline’s Web site, the municipalities of Brewer, Searsmont, Gorham and Eliot currently are being eyed as possible sites for four compression stations proposed as the consortium’s fourth phase of construction in Maine.

Open houses in Eliot and Gorham were conducted this week. Two more are slated for Tuesday at Pendleton Street School in Brewer and Thursday at the Ames school in Searsmont. Both sessions will run from 6 to 8 p.m.

Compression stations boost pressure in a pipeline. Maritimes & Northeast and its Canadian affiliate transport natural gas from near Sable Island, off the cost of Nova Scotia, through New Brunswick to energy markets in Atlantic Canada and the northeastern United States.

The $3 billion pipeline Maritimes & Northeast built two years ago stretches from Nova Scotia to Boston.

During the open houses, Maritimes & Northeast representatives will be on hand to answer questions about construction and operation of the compression stations, environmental and permitting processes, land acquisition and other aspects of the project. According to Maritimes & Northeast spokesman Marylee Hanley, area maps showing the sites proposed for the stations also will be available.

Hanley said Maritimes & Northeast officials have met with municipal officials in the four communities and have notified potentially affected abutting property owners. She pointed out, however, that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has the ultimate say over where the compression stations ultimately will be located.

Maritimes & Northeast is in the process of submitting applications for the plants with FERC. Public hearings will be required as part of the application process.

In an interview in September, Hanley said compression facilities usually are built on large tracts of land to maintain a buffer between the plants and surrounding developed areas because some of the plants reportedly emit a noise some have described as a hum.

The four proposed stations would bring the total in Maine to six. Maritimes & Northeast, owned by a group of energy companies, already has two compression stations in Maine.

One is in the Washington County town of Baileyville and the other is in Richmond in Sagadahoc County.

Though not a big generator of jobs – the Baileyville plant has only two full-time employees and is monitored via remote control from Houston, Texas – the proposed compression plants could add significantly to the tax bases of the municipalities in which they are built.

For example, if the Brewer station is valued at $25 million to $35 million, as some project officials have suggested to city staff, it would yield between $610,000 and $830,000 in new property tax revenue annually, Economic Development Director Drew Sachs said this fall.

According to city officials in Brewer, Maritimes & Northeast is not a nonprofit organization and as such would pay taxes at the regular rate. Sachs said the plant, if built, would boost Brewer’s total valuation by 5 percent from the current $451 million.

A similar plant in Baileyville completed two years ago at an estimated value of $23 million generates about $375,000 a year in tax revenue, based on that town’s current tax rate, Baileyville Town Manager Jack Clukey said earlier. That facility since has been expanded.

Though a similar plant in Richmond had been the source of noise concerns when it was the subject of public hearings, Clukey said the Baileyville facility drew “quite a lot of support,” largely due to its effect on the community’s tax base.

Maritimes & Northeast is owned by affiliates of Duke Energy, Westcoast Energy Inc., ExxonMobil and Emera Inc.